‘It’s a little frustrating’: Business owners react to Philadelphia’s mask mandate reversal

On Friday, Bonnie Garbinski and her employees were taking down the “mask required” signs they’d just put up at American Sardine Bar in Point Breeze.

They were changing the wording on their online reservation system. She was trying to decide whether to continue requiring all employees to mask or not.

Garbinski had found out on social media late Thursday evening that Philadelphia would lift its four-day-old mask mandate. It was good news for the bar, where she is the manager, but reversal also meant more work to undo the policies they’d just reinstated on Monday.

“It’s a little frustrating for us. Enforcing these restrictions was already difficult, and flip-flopping on those restrictions makes it more difficult,” said Garbinski. “It’s already a difficult enough job without having to go completely 180 from Monday to Friday.”

The abrupt lifting of Philadelphia’s newly reimposed mask mandate on Friday prompted whiplash and head-scratching for residents and business owners.

After reinstating the mandate on Monday to head off rising case and hospitalization numbers, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health voted Thursday to rescind it. The board also voted to do away with the tiered metric system that health officials were using to monitor COVID-19 activity and that triggered the mandate’s return.

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Citing lower new case and hospitalization numbers, health commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said she believed Philadelphians had heeded the health department’s warnings about rising cases even before the mask requirement went into effect and a masking recommendation would now be sufficient, contradicting the city’s earlier stance (and Mayor Jim Kenney’s own comments Thursday).

The reinstatement of the mandate had been “a big blow to us,” said Teddy Sourias, who owns several Philadelphia restaurants as president of Craft Concepts Group. In addition to concerns about enforcing the mandate with customers, restaurateurs were worried it would keep suburban residents from dining in the city, he said.

He was happy the requirement had been nixed but frustrated by the series of events.

“It’s embarrassing to the city,” Sourias said.

Many reacting to the change seemed more concerned with the flip-flop than with whether masks were mandated.

“It’s very confusing,” said Brad Richie, clinic director for Excel Physical Therapy in Center City.

On Friday afternoon, Richie left his office, where masks are still required; walked through the Curtis Building, where his office is located and where masks are no longer required; then entered a food establishment, where he was asked to put his mask on.

“The inconsistency is what is hurting businesses the most, because it requires guest education, staff education, and requires us to make sure we’re feeling confident in our staff and following the right guidelines,” said Qamara Edwards, business and events director at restaurant group Sojourn Philly and president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association.

Bettigole said she hoped the decision would increase public trust in the health department rather than undermine it.

“I had said when I announced this that if we didn’t see hospitalizations rising, that we needed to rethink [the mandate],” she said at a virtual briefing Friday. “By keeping those promises, if I do come back to Philadelphia [later] and have to say, ‘This one looks bad; we really have to do something different,’ I feel like then people are more willing to trust that we’re only going to do what we have to do.”

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The removal of the mandate returns the city to its previous situation, in which businesses and venues make their own masking policies and masks are strongly recommended in indoor public places.

The Kimmel Cultural Campus — the Kimmel Center, the Miller Theater, the Forrest Theatre, and the Academy of Music — will continue requiring masks, as it had been, spokesperson Leslie Tyler Patterson said, in order to keep a consistent policy for patrons.

Philadelphia International Airport will follow the city’s guidance, meaning masks are recommended but no longer required. The Wells Fargo Center will not require masks, either; a spokesperson had no comment except “Go Sixers!”

Masks are optional at World Cafe Live, though artists can request stricter vaccination, testing, and mask requirements for their shows, a spokesperson said.

Bartenders, servers, and managers were thankful the mandate was lifted, given that mandates can be difficult to enforce with unruly customers, said Chuck Moran, executive director of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage and Tavern Association. But he said tavern and restaurant owners have been through “way too much” during the pandemic.

“They deserve better than what city officials did to them on Monday, only to quickly walk back that decision,” he said.

Not having to police whether patrons are wearing masks “takes a huge load off my shoulders,” Garbinski said.

But, she added, “It just is hard ... — I don’t think it is doing them any favors as far as the public trust is concerned to flip-flop like this.”

Staff writers Erin Arvedlund and Catherine Dunn contributed to this report.